lmoore2680
Well-Known Member
Yes but for all that u can just use CFL's
IF you are new to LED and want help choosing what to buy, POST HERE!
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nomofatum
Well-Known Member
Same light is $19 on ebay/aliexpress. Yes it could flower a itty bitty daddy in a small reflective box, 12/12 from beginning to end. Just hope the built in driver lasts long enough.
TheHermit
Well-Known Member
I haven't really shopped around on prices yet. The plan is if I put an unsexed plant in flower, and it turns out to be male, then I take it upstairs and put it in a bedroom closet. They weren't very pretty under the cfls, but a llittle pollen goes a long way. The main problem I had with the cfls was that they seemed to flower much slower than the plants under hid. I guess that is to be expected though. I was also using a 6500k which probably played a part. Do you think something like that would work, or do I need to be less cheap.
nomofatum
Well-Known Member
CFL would be a better cheap option for something you don't care much about. Two or three $1 CFLs will match that LED bulb. You could easily get more of them for the same money and get better results.
Go to Home Depot and buy Cree LED lightbulbs or PAR38 spots (or floods). There's no reason to use CFLs anymore. You get a 10 year warranty, 90-100 lumens per watt (compared to CFL's 60-70). I.e., you'll need fewer watts for the same growth.
sunny747
Well-Known Member
I live in apartment. Space and heat and light leaks and noise and safety are always a concern. I currently run two 150 w hps. I normally grow 2-3 2.5 ft indica plants. I am tired of dealing with heat and electic bills. (Elec is very expensive here)..
Here is my plan. I want to grow one really nice trained plant at a time. I believe that if I switch to LED then I will not have as much of a heat problem. I can also reduce my electric bill. and I can run my fan on a lower setting.
My current grow is atrocious for a number of reasons. Hard water, heat issues, etc.. This is my 4th grow and the worst results I have had. Live and learn..
I am a hobby grower. I do it for the love of growing. I am considering buying a Secret Jardin 2 x 2 x 5 tent. I will grow one plant that is well trained to maximize canopy. (I'm good at that part) I am considering the Area 51 RW75. I have no interest in learning to build my own.
The max suggested space for the rw 75 is 24 x 24 inches. If I pop this light into a 24 x 24 tent and get my soil and nutes right I am thinking that I can have a good grow. If I need to add a few household LED's for better coverage that would be fine.
Right now I have my 4 inch fan and filter running on high. This actually uses quite a bit of electricity. I believe it's 150 watts.With a 75 w led in a 2x2x5 tent how much heat is there to disperse? Would a small household fan venting the heat out of the top cool this space or am I just way off on my expectations of the heat produced by LED?
Any thoughts?
Here is my plan. I want to grow one really nice trained plant at a time. I believe that if I switch to LED then I will not have as much of a heat problem. I can also reduce my electric bill. and I can run my fan on a lower setting.
My current grow is atrocious for a number of reasons. Hard water, heat issues, etc.. This is my 4th grow and the worst results I have had. Live and learn..
I am a hobby grower. I do it for the love of growing. I am considering buying a Secret Jardin 2 x 2 x 5 tent. I will grow one plant that is well trained to maximize canopy. (I'm good at that part) I am considering the Area 51 RW75. I have no interest in learning to build my own.
The max suggested space for the rw 75 is 24 x 24 inches. If I pop this light into a 24 x 24 tent and get my soil and nutes right I am thinking that I can have a good grow. If I need to add a few household LED's for better coverage that would be fine.
Right now I have my 4 inch fan and filter running on high. This actually uses quite a bit of electricity. I believe it's 150 watts.With a 75 w led in a 2x2x5 tent how much heat is there to disperse? Would a small household fan venting the heat out of the top cool this space or am I just way off on my expectations of the heat produced by LED?
Any thoughts?
SomeGuy
Well-Known Member
i havent been tracking my vero 18 build for a while. But there is good info there. I havent built the vero 10 fixtures but I have them in my mind thus far...LOL The vero18 thread wont give you all you need but might help you a bit with understanding the process and how it applies across the board.
here I dug up a link to help ya out. sorry I cant go farther. typing is difficult wiht my hand right now.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/diy-led-grow-light-vero-18-economy-light.842794/
AllDayToker
Well-Known Member
Alright, thanks man! I'll go check out that link.
The RW-75 doesn't produce much heat. With only 5' of height I don't think I'd recommend it. The 5w diodes inside reflectors requires some distance from the canopy. If you went with 3w and no reflector (just a white backboard) you could get the light closer. But, the only fixtures I've seen like this are Chinese epi-whatever lights (like the rebranded Blackstar 135w UFO, 85w actual). Hans uses a 120-degree reflector which might allow the light to be closer.
If you used an RW-75, that's only 18w/sq ft (in a 2x2 space). You'd want four 9.5w Cree "lightbulbs" from Home Depot. That would get you up to 28w/sq ft. If you're ok with doing that, you could consider Cree PAR38 floods (47deg reflectors) at $24 each. Four of them would be 72w. Mount them as top light. Because of the wide-angle flood, you get a nice diffuse light. They can be about 6" from the canopy. (Should be 6-8" for proper focus. They can be closer without bleaching or burning.). The side lighting would give you even more distributed, diffuse light.
I think this style of light (diffuse, distributed) is better. In a small space it's feasible. In a 4x4x7' tent it's not as feasible.
If you can handle that level of DIY (setting up sockets, figuring out how to position/aim them, etc.) you might consider SMD 5730 strip lighting. You can buy a 5 meter roll and create your own "surround light". Power them with an inexpensive 12v power supply.
I want to play with this, just haven't had the time. I'm thinking of mounting them to some aluminum sheet sold at the hardware store. Fashion the sheet into folding wings using hinges (which you can crimp to make them tighter so they hold their position). Four panels around the plant that could be moved in closer, and folded to aim the light. Enough strips to get 30-35w/sq ft. Maybe 2-3 floods on top (reducing the wattage from strips to get the same total w/sq ft).
sunny747
Well-Known Member
Like this?
http://www.amazon.com/Cree-Par38-Bright-White-3000k/dp/B00KKT25D6/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1424385499&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=cree 90w
How about 6 of these in a 2x2 space? Would that rock it or not? I wonder about color temperature. I feel that hans and area 51 have spent a lot of time maximizing the colors.
As suggested it would seem that the spots would be better than regular shaped bulbs. Do you agree?
I read a grow thread about using the household LED bulbs. The guy CRUSHED it! Awesome grow.
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Yes, that's what I'm using. I think they're $3 less at Home Depot.
Here's a plant I'm flowering under 5 spots, 2 floods and 7 9.5w "lightbulbs" for sidelight. The plant is larger than I expected. It fills about 3x3. So, it's getting about 19w/sq ft which is low. I wanted to do 30. But, as you can see, it's flowering decently. I took these pictures a couple hours ago:
You've probably seen the link to my writeup about this kind of lighting. That may give you some ideas about how to mount/position/aim lights like this. If you have questions about how to do it, let me know.
The nice thing about these lights is: If you decide to use a fixture at a later date, you still have these bulbs to use to supplement when you have a plant that's larger than expected (or, to use in an emergency when the fixture fails).
AllDayToker
Well-Known Member
SomeGuy
Well-Known Member
The wattage is not so important as to just give you a common ground when talking about watts used vs output.
This is from the electrical drive considerations pamphlet on vero10
Power handling capability: Maximum power = 22.54W = 700mA x 32.2V (this is the max Vf of BXRC-30E1000-B when driven at 700mA).
So you could probably expect around 10w each + or - driven at 350ma. The important part is to pick a drive current that works within the specifications of the cob and provides the right Voltage range.
http://www.bridgelux.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/AN32-Vero-Series-Electrical-Drive-Considerations.pdf
the information on page 13 helps with seeing different forward voltage requirements at different drive currents. This should help you find a drive that offers a range which is suitable.
AllDayToker
Well-Known Member
Well I'm still kind of confused but it doesn't seem like a lot of light. I mean would two of these really work for a 48" by 16" space? I would almost have to lay these on top of the plants. Only 36" in height to use that doesn't include the pot and the light depth.
1. That would be 28w/sq ft. That would be good. I just like to distribute the light a little more. The 9.5w bulbs can get closer which is good for the sides. If you had one in each corner, that would be 38w from four angles. If you used an extra 2 floods on top it would make the top a little crowded.
(I don't think you could put the floods on the sides because you need a little more distance. I suppose you could do 2 floods on top and 4 spots, each one hitting at an angle from the top corner. This would give you some top and some sidelight. The throw of the spot would give sidelight. But, if the plant became larger than expected you'd run the risk of it being too close to the spots. I think I bleached the plant I posted a picture of. When it stretched I wasn't paying attention to the focus of the spots. It got a little pale on top. In the past I've struggled with mg def and also reducing N too quickly. I'm not sure if the early yellowing was due to that or the light being too close. But, it's something to be careful of with the spots because they are intense. I intended to use floods. I started with spots to see how they worked. Then decided I shouldn't change things and be unsure of actual performance from the grow. That's also the reason I haven't added lights to get higher than 19w/sq ft. I want a clear result.).
2. I don't think our plants are as sensitive to spectrum as we believe. However, using 9.5w bulbs for sidelighting would give you some control over the color temperature. You could use 5k in veg, 2.7k in flower. The top floods would always be 3k. (You could incrementally turn those on in veg as the plant grows. Maybe end up with 2 floods and 4 5k sidelights at the end of veg, then 4 floods and 4 2.7k sidelights at the end of flower.
3. I think floods are better than spots unless you're in a tall space. (I'm not sure spots are better in a tall space, just that you need more vertical height to focus them.).
Omnidirection lightbulbs are ok. It's just that you have to add your own reflector to make use of the light. That's an added initial expense. But, you pay for that with integral spots/floods. An omni is about $7, while a spot/flood is $20.
Either way, you're starting with 90-100 lumens per watt from the diode. The reflector (whether added or built-in) points that light in a certain direction -- but at a loss of lumens. This can be confusing when you look at an omni which says it has more lumens compared to the same wattage spot/flood. If you add a reflector to the omni you'll have similar actual lumens.
FWIW: That's another reason I want to try SMD5037 strip light. Point it directly at the plant. No need to make it look like a traditional light (reflected omnidirectional energy). 12 volts, so there's no need to keep it behind glass or a lens for safety reasons. I think it could be better suited. But, I don't know yet.
JimmyIndica
Well-Known Member
Your 4 inch fan is fine with an intake fan also. No extra is nessesary. Area 51 run cool. That is max area for RW75 but that 1 plant wil be nice top and tie her down spread her out! good luck! That's a good light for ya just almost 3 weeks on backorder last time I checked!
SomeGuy
Well-Known Member
I can only tell you what I plan.
I will run 4-5 vero10s at 350ma to light a 2'x4'x2.5' space. This would give around 50w of lighting. at over 100lumen per watt this is more than enough for veg IMO.
I plan to build two fixtures exactly the same since I have a 5'h 2x4 tent split into two levels.
You would create more efficiency (more light less heat) by running more cobs at less amperage. So for an increase in efficiency you could drive at 250ma and run 6-7. There is lots of design flexibility but this also makes it not so simple for the entry level lighting DIYer
My point is there is no "do it this way" sort of thing.
If you are still befuddled then maybe try to find someone to build your first one with you. Do you have any friends that are heavy into electronics? Its so hard to help people with electronics assembly from far away. Im willing to bet if you could look at a finished light in person some pieces would fall into place for you.
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